CHESTER, NEW YORK
A quaint family-owned farmhouse nanobrewery in the idyllic countryside of Orange County, Chester’s LONG LOT FARM BREWERY occupies a tin-roofed red aluminum sided converted dairy barn. Open for business since early 2018, former homebrewer Curtis Johnson utilizes local ingredients to craft his rustically rangy one-offs, seasonals and semi-permanent suds.
A covered front porch with hanging Edison lights introduces patrons to the diminutive wood-floored Long Lot barroom. The spare interior setup includes a small tree top-barked serving station (with ten tap handles), a few chairs and barrels plus the small brewing operation. A grassy picnic area overlooks the hop bines and a chicken coup and cow pasture are nearby.
My wife and I visit on a hot Sunday afternoon to sample all the available fare, early June ’21.
Mild hay-dried grain musk fortified the grassy Perle-hopped herbage of Long Shot Pilsner, securing a pasty raw-honeyed whim, clean cucumber-watered dash and distant fungi remnant.
Laidback rye spicing and toasty pumpernickel residue tingled peat malted moderation, Roggenbier, procuring underlaid mineral graining.
Tart pineapple-juiced Pucker Up Sour let brief lemon-salted cherry-strawberry rhubarb sharpness inside the slightly acidic backend.
Crushable Barnstormer Session IPA caressed serene grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering with grassy hop astringency contrasting dry pale malt spicing.
Oaken bourbon vanilla dryness softly embellishes Barrel Aged River Chain, a tidy Belgian strong golden ale with buttery Chardonnay, Scotch and whiskey nips.
A few days hence before dining at Goshen’s Hacienda Restaurant, bought growler of Long Lot’s Baby Cow Coffee Stout, a roughhewn full body with dark roast coffee penetrating tarry nut-charred Blackstrap molasses bittering and cocoa-nibbed black chocolate fudging over maple oats, leaving scorched earthen remnant on muddy mocha finish.
